Estateillio

A Talk with the Winds

• Even though they were out of the reach of the orcs, they weren't safe from danger. Against the light of the rising sun, Legolas spotted a dark figure quickly flying towards them.

• "There is something coming our direction", he quietly told Estateillio so as to avoid waking the others and he pointed at what he had spotted. "It flies?", the elleth questioned, for she had discerned that the prince was pointing at something in the sky, though at what exactly she could not tell, for it was out of her current range. Legolas, realizing his mistake, lowered his arm and said: "Forgive me, I did not think."

• Estateillio inclined her head in acceptation of the apology and then rather impatiently asked again: "Does it fly?" "Yes. It comes from the east and is very big, too large to be a bird", the prince replied and the elleth nodded and then went still as she extended her mind and searched for whatever it was that Legolas had seen, but she found nothing.

• "It's too far away for me to feel it", she informed the other elf, "How distant is it? Fifteen miles? Twenty? Thirty?" "Twenty to thirty", Legolas guessed and Estateillio hummed and said: "Then it will still be some time till I can feel it. It'd be best if you keep an eye on it."

• But then she thought of something and started taking off her boots and Legolas asked: "What are you doing?" "I have an idea", she stated curtly and then divested herself of her cloak and turned up her trousers and discarded her weapons and then waded barefooted into the cool waters of the Anduin until she was about knee-deep in the rivers and then she turned and faced north and let her awareness sink deep into the layers of the world and when she spoke, Arda listened:

• "Mae govannen, túrar melehti Eo. Aia, lye túra Anduin, aia, de túrar vaili, moica Hyarvailë ar ringë Forovailë, Andúvailë, lye i illumë tuluas men sívë, Orróvailë, lye i illumë oras me raxë. Raxesse narlmë sí, thoryan, pan orci nalantanert me noa ar sí alasinwa cuima wilos emmenna. Du nas cottova, du mapas maicarmaryá, Arda núvas barad lantanna. San cestan lye sí, túrar vaili, pan ugrestiert ni epë, sina cuima nuas mornieva, nuas raxë men?" (Greetings, you great powers of Eä. Hail, you great Anduin, hail, you great winds, gentle south wind and cold north wind, west wind, you who has always brought to us calm, and east wind, you who has always warned us of danger. In danger we are now, I fear, for orcs fell upon us yesterday and now an unknown creature flies towards us. Should it be of the enemy, should it take his greatest weapon from us, Arda is doomed to fall. So I ask you now, great winds, for you have helped me before, is this creature of the darkness, is it a danger to us?)

• And the water swirled faster around her legs and a strong gale blew through the canyon and Legolas, who was perched on a small ledge a bit higher on the cliff face, had to scramble for purchase on the rocks, for the sudden strength of the wind surprised him, and the winds answered:

• "Istëan lye, Eruhini, mai-istearlmë de, pan lillumë onórierlmë as denen ar melethrilnencca ar gomodrontencca arta patsimar palari. Tular, wilar emmenna, vinyar, ar apantuvarlmë de." (I know you, children of Eru, we know you well, for often we have run with you and your lady love and your two companions across the wide, open plains. Come, fly with us, young ones, and we will show you.)

• And the wind picked up even more and the water churned around her and Estateillio threw back her head and opened her arms wide as the combined power of the forces she had called upon flooded her and pulled at her and she let herself be washed away and dragged high into the sky, farther than she could have ever managed on her own, and for a while she simply was, just existing in the moment as she let herself be carried by the currents of the winds and marveling at the sheer lightness that had engulfed her so far up, so far away.

• The winds carried her east, towards the rising sun and she remembered her purpose as they neared the creature and Estateillio realized what it was as she tasted the darkness surrounding it and Ráven recoiled and hissed and Halieth snarled and Hráven kept both from doing anything stupid while Estamíriel thanked the winds and they were swept back towards their little camp.

• And Estateillio stumbled as her shattered fëa was flung back into her hröa and she would have fallen into the rushing waters of the Anduin had Aragorn not been there to catch her and help her out of the river.

• "Are you alright?", the ranger asked and she nodded, still breathing heavily, but otherwise fine. The rest of the fellowship stood or sat with sleepy, but concerned, expressions on their faces. Either Legolas had woken them or the wind had, she supposed, though that didn't matter much at the moment.

• "I have two good news and a bad news", she declared, after she had sat down on a rock with Aragorn's help, and thus intercepted anything the others might have wanted to say, "The first good news is that what you spotted, Legolas, is no dragon or otherwise similarly dangerous, so there's a high chance we won't die to it. The bad news is that it's a Nazgûl. But it's alone and only riding a fellbeast which is very easy to kill with an arrow to the head and with it dead the wraith probably, hopefully cannot do much to bother us if we do things right."

• "And you had to brew up a storm to find that out?", Aragorn asked as she finished lacing up her boots and she replied: "I didn't do anything beyond asking the winds for help, because I could not reach that far on my own."

• "The winds? Such thing is unheard of", Legolas exclaimed, but the elleth simply shrugged: "We did it quite often actually, especially during the First Age, asking the winds or the rivers or the earth itself to do something for us, often in exchange for a song or something of the likes, but I know that Él oftentimes simply asked the winds if they would like to run with us when we raced across what now is Rohan during the long years of peace in the Second Age, for nothing in exchange."

• A sad smile was upon her lips as she recalled those golden days of joy and grief welled up in her chest and she only realized that she had started to space out when Aragorn inconspicuously nudged her foot and she returned to her senses and listened to Legolas just finishing to say: "-will need to turn east anyways."

• "But there are orcs on the eastern shores, we know that already. Even if it would be good to have one less danger to worry about once we do turn east, we would have nowhere safe to rest at night in the meantime with a Nazgûl on this and orcs on the other shore", the ranger objected, "But with both threats on the opposite shore, we can have relatively safe nights still and by the time we turn eastwards we will have long outpaced them both."

• Quickly Estateillio understood what they were considering: on which shore to shoot down the fellbeast. For the seconds that Boromir agreed with Aragorn and suggested turning to one of the gondorian cities to seek their aid with the Nazgûl, the elleth contemplated. The western shore was too dangerous as Aragorn had said and shooting it down directly above the river would eliminate the imminent threat the Nazgûl posed, but with it dying Sauron would sooner learn of their position. She too came to the same conclusion her cousin's descendant had drawn.

• Aragorn just finished listing all the reasons why going to any city was a terrible decision, though he was very polite and gentle with it, and Estateillio took that as an opportunity to say her piece: "You are right, Aragorn, that it would be too dangerous to have the Nazgûl on the western shore. On the eastern shore it could still be a risk once we head east and it manages to find us, but I frankly do not think it will try to do so once the fellbeast is dead. The Nazgûl are cowards, without a reason they will not fight if they aren't certain they'll come out victorious and I defeated them once when they were all together, this one will not dare pick a fight with me alone."

• "Are we then all in agreement?", Aragorn asked as no one said anything and thus it was decided.

• They finished the quick breakfast Sam bullied them into taking and then they were on their way again and though they travelled more quickly than before due to the still sped up waters from Estateillio's talk with the winds and thus were quite happy and content, she could not help but notice Boromir brooding and stealing quick glances at Frodo.

[《◇》]

Here's the next chapter, hope you enjoyed!

AT